106: Get More Done by Working Less

Note: This episode happened before I made the decision to start practicing Small Scale Sabbaticals. A few days after this episode was recorded, I decided to take off a week every 7 weeks. It’s interesting to listen back to some of the thoughts that were going through my mind beforehand.

Do you feel like you’re making an effort to say no to things, bringing on help, not doing too many things at once, and somehow you’re still overloaded? You’re still exhausted, you still feel like you have no time, and still don’t seem to be getting any more done?

It seems like no matter how much I say no and regardless of whether I’m hiring people to help, I somehow don’t end up having more time. What I’ve realized is I consistently tend to ramp up everything until I’m at maximum capacity. I’m bad at slowing down. I’m bad at taking breaks because I fall prey to the idea that they’re unproductive.

We talk about why breaks are actually helpful, the two kinds of breaks, the importance of thinking time, being able to take breaks even when you have kids, the piano teacher that always knew, and leveraging procrastination to get more done in less time.